Simma Holt
Author / Lecturer / Broadcaster
Member: Canadian News Hall of Fame
Member: Order of Canada
Member: Canadian Association of Former Parliamentarians
Member: Editorial Board: Beyond the Hill (CAFP)The only way the three losers can get power is by total contempt of the Canadian voters–with this Coalition. They jeer and yell across the floor of the House of Commons charging Stephen Harper with only one motive–wanting to hold power. The only sound we hear across the miles is their hysterical demand for their own power–power none of them could get from the voters. Canada did not vote for Stephen Dion as the leader of this country.
I was a Liberal MP in the Government of Pierre Elliott Trudeau 1974-79. But there is no place in the Liberal Party of Canada for a true Grit. Nor is there a place for western Canadinans in this Insane Hysteria from the eternal losers–the NDP, the Bloc, and their chosen leader Stephen Dion — to succeed in this Contemptible Coup.
This cries out to us on the Pacific Rim: “if any part of Canada should separate it is British Columbia.
The contempt of the voters of Canada, and indifference to the economic and political crisis not only of Canada but the world, makes all of these power seekers unfit to service in the Nation’s Parliament…
Simma Holt
December 4, 2008
This entry was authored by Stephen Taylor at 11:04 AM | Tweet this | View Comments
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Stephen Taylor is a scientist, political analyst and a blogger. Taylor writes here regularly and is the founder of bloggingtories.ca. Taylor has contributed to Macleans, CTV, talk radio and has been a featured speaker on new media at numerous events including the Western Standard Cruise and the Forum for Public Policy. In December 2008, Taylor organized Rally for Canada, a series of rallies held coast-to-coast to protest the proposed coalition government.
December 4th, 2008 at 2:08 pm
The 5-week chill should fix this machina-dion.
December 4th, 2008 at 11:53 pm
Absolutely correct! The move by three three sore and pathetic losers is seditious and, if the nation had more spine and resolve, they should be arrested and hanged for treason. No one! I mean, no one should try and steal the election from a legitimately elected goverment. I am and outraged and long-time libereral who will vote Conservative next time. I hope that in the next election the Canadians will give a whopping majority to the Conservatives so that we can sweep those three pathetic and contemptible losers from Parliament!
December 5th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
Mr. Dion,
Here is a question that screams for an answer. To all of the volunteers that dedicated and sacrificed their money, time and energy on doing everything they could to ensure a Liberal candidate won a seat in the last election only to fall short to a NDP or Bloc candidate. What do you tell these people? What do you say to those who fought the enemy every minute of every day of that campaign; with no thought of person gain; their only goal to see the Liberal party become victorious, what do you say to them? What do you say to the candidates who put their life aside to defeat their NDP and Bloc rivals? What do say to those who suffered malicious personal attacks, who went to battle for the Liberal cause only to come up short against a victorious NDP or Bloc candidate? How do you tell them, “Thanks for your dedication, thanks for your hard work, thanks for your tenacity but I am going to form a coalition with those that beat you. I am siding with those I asked you to sacrifice your personal lives to defeat, how do you explain that to them? You have lied to your very own people; you used them as cannon fodder. They have become collateral damage for a coalition. That is the legacy you have to live with now Mr. Dion. Layton, Duceppe this legacy is yours as well.
Sincerely,
An average Canadian talking with his family around the kitchen table
December 5th, 2008 at 1:25 pm
Nice sentiments…No really…trouble is that these three cowards are missing the gene that directs Introspection within the human psyche…in other words like the career criminal hoping to get leniency at the sentencing hearing,who tells the vctims's family that he's sorry when in fact he's only sorry he got caught…these three hold no remorse but at the very least should for all the folks that believed in their respective parties and gave of themselves accordingly.
The words ruthless and unprincipled come readily to mind.
December 5th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
Evidently the whole Liberal party should be shown political pergatory for at least the next ten years. Even the wanna-be leader Ignatief should have shown the Liberal colours he supposedly believes in by aligning himself with the government rather than sitting with his mouth shut and condoning a coup d'tat which if he has any education knows full well that to conspire against the sitting government without the consent of the Crown is an offense against the Crown and the people of Canada.
December 5th, 2008 at 2:59 pm
Total Contempt for Canadian Voters is the best comment I've read yet on the coalition situation.
There is absolutley NO precedent in Canada where a coalition is formed to take power from an established governmnent.
In 1985 in Ontario David Peterson did form a government with the backing of the NDP despite not winning the plurality of seats. Frank Miller and the conservatives did win the election but without enough support had not choice but to sit in opposition. No one suggested there was any merit to Frank Miller trying to govern when Peterson asked the Lieutenant Governor to dissolve and none would have reasonably expected it after nearly two years of rule.
In the King-Byng affair a similar situation occured when King though losing the election was able to cobble together a government with the backing of the Progressive party. This government showed signs of failure as King's cabinet was getting caught with their hands in the cookie jar. True, Governor General Byng did refuse King's request to dissolve parliament and called on the conservatives and Arthur Meighen to form a government.
It was the Meighen government THE ACTUAL VICTORS in the 1925 election that faced and lost a vote of confidence and it was his government that then called the election.
In no case has a coalition formed after cabinet had been chosen. This is especially poignant given that the opposition did not seek out the Governor General to form a coalition immediately. Had they done so Harper would have been obliged to sit in opposition. This hypothetical government could only have been formed with ALL THREE Opposition partes playing from the same songsheet.
That is not what happened in October when Layton campaigned in Quebec as an effective and inclusive party for progressives courting Bloc vote while in the Rest Of Canada courting LIberals in the same manner. Celine Dion also adamantly ruled out a coalitoin whenever it was presented first with Lizzie the Greeen Monster and later with Layton where he stated that a coalition with the NDP would be a financial disaster.
Only Gilles Duceppe effectively campaigned on the basis that he could stop Harper but he was only stopping him for Quebec and he also emphatically ruled out sitting in government no less than during the debate when asked about being prime minister.
After approving the throne speech there is no doubt that this is a transparent grasp at power fueled by politicians addicted to the public purse strings for their survival. Isn't it odd that the Conservatives can ask people for money and get it but these three must expropriate it?
In the event the budget and the government is defeated I believe that Harper has not only the right but the obligatoin to visit Rideau Hall again and demand an election. While the Governor General is not obligated to allow this I can see no precedent where she can justify calling the coaliton together. A government with a leader who does not even have the confidence of his own party cannot be formed in anticipation that the Libs actually get it right with their next choice.
Again it would be contempt of the Canadian Voters to do anything else but ask them to decide a simple question
Coalition or Conservatives?
In that election the conservatives should insiste on only debating one challenger at a time both in the national debates and at the riding level. Four intelligent debates is the answer not the free for all we saw last time. The Conservatve message should extend the precedent sought by the coalition that only a majority Conservative government is acceptable. The Conservatives need to say they will not govern in a minority because the other parties insist they will not deal with them. The other issue of the election simply has to be the $2.00 whoring of our vote. If that is what got these guys all up in arms they have to stand before the people of Canada and say they deserve the cash and justify it to us.
December 6th, 2008 at 12:49 am
And now starts the catalyst…
December 6th, 2008 at 6:25 am
Yeah Paul Martin sure took it like a man. Let me see his playbook, Page One poach an MP and make them a cabinet minister. Page Two appeal on Television for some time. Page three get in bed with Jack Layton to fend off a vote. Page Four rage like a fool during the dying hours of the election to replace you by fornicating with Buzz Hargrove in public.
Yeah Paul Martin, that is what we need more of.
Then there is always the MacKenzie King model, lose the election and buy support of the Progressives to hold onto power, have your cabinet cronies get caught stealign and try to appoint them to the senate to get out of it. Then immediately vote to defeat the legitimate plurality power and somehow fool the people again to trust you. Good thing Jean Chretien or Pierre Trudeau is not still there he might pull that off.
December 6th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
I just have to say one thing. As a proud Québécois, I am really glad this imaginary country is falling apart. I don't need rednecks from the WROC to destroy my beautiful nation's ambitions.
December 7th, 2008 at 8:49 pm
Very unparliamentary language from a former MP. This does nothing to help the situation. Whatever you think of the other parties, each MP has won their seat.
Was Mr. Harper expecting to run the government like he had a majority, when his party only had a minority in the House of Commons? A minority government is always at risk of being defeated if it can't work with other parties. That's how our system works. Defeating a minority government is legal and legitimate.
December 9th, 2008 at 11:53 am
Legitimate in that it wasn't thought that the vote would be so cut up with various parties as to open the chance of such actually taking place for so self serving a reason? I believe that. This reads like internet scams in that the book not accounting for it makes doable? Sure if you apply things against a static set of rules meant for another time this is “their right” but after looking at 100K plus of devaluation in my portfolio, I'll hold to this NOT being the right time for such idiocy.
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